Hunger: A big problem close to home

When I first came to the United States from Nepal in 1981, I imagined I was coming to a country of plenty, where people wanted for nothing and no one ever went hungry.

Of course, I know that I was mistaken.

While the United States is a land of great prosperity, and while hunger and poverty are much more pronounced in other parts of the world, the issue of hunger and food security does exist here. According to North Carolina Food Banks, approximately 50 million Americans are classified as hungry. That’s nearly one in six residents. That’s a statistic that surprised me when I learned it. The United States is the most efficient food producer in the world, yet hunger remains a problem here.

And the problem is not just confined to isolated, rural parts of the country. It’s right here in Wake and Durham counties. In Wake County, 14% of the populations are food insecure. That’s over 121,000 people, including more than 56,000 children. In Durham County, the problem is even greater, with 18% of the population being insecure. 

Hunger is a particularly insidious problem because, while it is often caused by poverty and inequity, it also perpetuates it. To put it simply, one pathway out of poverty is education. But children who are hungry cannot learn, and thus do not do well in school. Therefore, they are destined to continue the cycle of poverty. 

That is why the Keshav Deo Foundation for Humanity is focused on hunger as a key issue we want to help solve. By helping people to help themselves, and to find solutions to hunger, we hope to break the cycle of poverty and inequity that plague so many families, starting right here in the triangle.